Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Damn Arbor alum Rich Retyi has just published his first book, The Book of Ann Arbor: An Extremely Serious History Book. He will be discussing the book tomorrow night at Literati Bookstore at 7 pm. The Book of Ann Arbor compiles many of the historical stories you may have heard on Rich's podcast, Ann Arbor Stories.

This afternoon, Rich and I sat down at our respective computers to discuss his book over email.

Ben Connor Barrie: What is your favorite story in the book?

Rich Retyi: he saddest is It's Lovely to Die Together. The most messed up are Ann Arbor Cages Public Animal #1 or The Torch Murders. The grossest is A Brief History of Poop. The historicaliest is Dirty Rotten Founders. But Ben, my favorite is obviously the Dam Arbor chapter!

BCB: What was the best part about writing the book?

RR: Nothing. It fucking sucks to write a book. That's not exactly true. Going down 41 rabbit holes to write these stories—reading all these old newspaper articles and looking through old photos from the Ann Arbor District Library's archives—that's a lot of fun. But deadlines and editors who hit me and did I mention deadlines? I also feel really weird signing my book because that feels super pretentious. Wait, your question was what did you hate about writing this book, right?

BCB: Is your book the best local holiday gift for the 2017 season?

RR: No. It's the third best holiday gift for the 2017 season. The first best would be John Bacon's book about when the town of Halifax blew up. The second would be a t-shirt from The Bar at Braun Court. THEN Book of Ann Arbor.

The Book of Ann Arbor: An Extremely Serious History Book, published by Fifth Avenue Press, is available at Nicola's Books, Literati, Rock, Paper, Scissors, and Amazon.